Mavericks reportedly said ‘hell no’ to the idea of a Russell Westbrook trade

Even while the Mavericks might make sense on paper, the franchise gave a very strong response to the idea of acquiring Russell Westbrook from the Lakers this summer.

Russell Westbrook has long, long been a divisive character. Even at his greatest heights and winning an MVP, debates swirled on just how valuable he really was. As his game has regressed, the divisiveness has not subsided and only grown.

Present day, Westbrook is viewed as little more than long-term cap relief on the trade market. Even then, his last season in Los Angeles was so drastically bad that it’s scared teams off of him in any manner.

On Friday’s episode of Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast, Tim McMahon of ESPN, a longtime Mavericks insider, shared Dallas’ very hilarious and brutally honest reaction to potentially acquiring Westbrook in any manner this offseason.

“So you guys told me you heard that and I checked in. I got a very quick ‘Hell no.’...The idea of Russ being on the roster next to the most ball-dominant player in the NBA, Luka Doncic...”

This reaction came not even at the idea of a trade, but simply signing Russ on a minimum contract if he were bought out. Considering the Mavericks’ financial situation with a number of large long-term contracts, a trade might actually make more sense than signing him outright.

But regardless of any of those details, the honest reaction is just hilarious. Sometimes, it’s just nice to hear an unfiltered response from a team like this. And can you really blame the Mavs? Nothing about rostering Russ makes sense given Luka Doncic’s playstyle. There’s a whole season worth of evidence from last season of what happens when you put Russ next to a ball-dominant player.

However, if there’s a franchise and owner that Lakers fans would love to watch deal with Westbrook next, Mark Cuban and the Mavericks would rank quite highly on that list. Wouldn’t you just hate to tweet “Amnesty THAT!” at the Mavs for a whole season of Russ games?

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